MoD refused Asbo 'to beat down' peace protester

The Ministry of Defence was criticised by a judge yesterday for trying to use an anti-social behaviour order to "beat down'' the legitimate protests of a peace campaigner.

District judge Roy Anderson said Lindis Percy had a right to demonstrate outside the American base at Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, North Yorks. He rejected a request - made jointly by the MoD police agency and North Yorkshire police - to have her kept away from the base by means of an Asbo.

Instead he ordered that the 63-year-old grandmother should be made the subject of an 8pm to 6am daily curfew and required to wear an electronic tag.

He had convicted her at an earlier trial of one count of obstructing the highway at Menwith Hill and four of obstructing a police officer.

''Mrs Percy has previous convictions but they all seem to relate to, and stem from, her activities as a peace campaigner. She may, in her relentless expression of her views, be thought by many to be a fanatic and, by some to be a crank. Nevertheless she is entitled to express these views unless she breaks the criminal law of this country.

''I am firmly of the view courts ought not to allow Asbos to be used as a club to beat down the expression of legitimate comment and the dissemination of views on matters of public concern."